Tall Ship Concordia Sinks

[jheynder]

This is a repost from Sailnet (http://www.sailnet.com/forums/gener...-related/62155-tall-ship-concordia-sinks.html)

Canadian school ship sinks off Brazil; all rescued - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100220/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_brazil_ship_capsizes)

RIO DE JANEIRO – A Canadian sailing ship filled with high school and college students sank off the coast of Brazil in strong winds, but officials said all 64 people aboard were rescued Friday after about 16 hours in rafts tossed by rough seas.

A distress signal was picked up from the three-masted SV Concordia about 5 p.m. Thursday, the Brazilian Navy said in a statement, and a Brazilian Air Force plane later spotted life rafts in about 300 miles (500 kilometers) off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.

Forty-eight students — in grades 11, 12 and university freshmen — were aboard the vessel, said Kate Knight, head of West Island College International of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, which operates the Class Afloat program.

Edgardo Ybranez, captain of the Philippine flagged Hokuetsu Delight cargo ship, told The Associated Press via satellite phone that his ship rescued 44 of the victims in rough, dangerous seas. The remaining people were picked up by another ship.

Ybranez said the Concordia's doctor had suffered an injury before the rescue, "but he is OK now." He gave no more details.

All the rest were unhurt, Ybranez said: "You can tell their parents that everything is OK; everybody aboard my ship is fine."

The captain declined to put one of the survivors on the telephone. "They are all downstairs sleeping because they are exhausted, so I don't want to call any of them up," he said before cutting off the call to communicate with his employers.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a statement thanking the Brazilian Navy and the merchant crews "for their swift and heroic response."

"The skill and compassion demonstrated by Brazilian rescuers is a tribute to their training, spirit and seamanship," he said.

School officials said 42 of those aboard were from Canada. Knight said others hail from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Europe and the West Indies.

"At this point we can't confirm at all what circumstances led them to abandon ship, or the status of the vessel," she said.

The Brazilian Navy, however, said the ship sank. Juan Cruz Margarita, captain of the SE Stao Knutsen that assisted in the rescue operation, told the AP via satellite phone he saw no sign of the Canadian ship by the time his vessel arrived.

Navy spokeswoman Maria Padilha said the students spent up to 16 hours on life rafts before they were rescued between 4 a.m. and 9 a.m.

She later said that some of those rescued were transferred to a Brazilian Navy ship late Friday and that the first of two ships carrying the passengers back to Rio was expected to dock around 9 a.m.

Shelley Piller, whose 17-year-old stepdaughter Elysha was on board, told the AP in a telephone interview from Kenilworth, Ontario, that she was worried despite hearing news that everyone was safe.

"That's my kid. For me I need to actually physically see her, feel her and have her in front of me to understand that she's safe," Piller said. "We're petrified, absolutely petrified."

The ship had visited Europe and Africa since leaving Canada in September, and it had just begun a five-month semester program on leaving Recife in Brazil's northeast Feb. 8. It was scheduled to dock Tuesday in Montevideo, Uruguay, then head to several islands in the Atlantic and to southern Africa and the Caribbean before returning to Canada.

The school's Web site says the 188-foot-long (57.5-meter-long) Concordia was built in 1992 and "meets all of the international requirements for safety." It carries up to 66 passengers and crew and also can operate under motor power.

The college's Web site says it gives high school and college students the chance to study while sailing the world. Tuition is listed as 42,500 Canadian dollars ($40,600) a year.

 

[photodog]

 

[Rum_Pirate]

http://www.torontosun.com/news/world/2010/02/20/12961036-ap.html

How do you define 'keeling' or 'keeled' ?


Capt. William Curry . . . said he and the Concordia’s crew had prepared a day beforehand for what they anticipated would be rough but not unusual weather. He was below deck when the ship suddenly keeled — which was normal. It was when it keeled a second time that he knew the vessel was in great danger. The captain blamed the wreck on a “microburst,” a sudden, vertical downdraft. When the vessel keeled, the entire surface area of the sails was exposed to the powerful wind, and within 15 seconds, the boat went from sailing normally, upright, to lying on its side and beginning to sink. Thirty minutes later it was completely underwater, Curry said. “The boat started keeling a lot,” Unsworth said. “It came back up, keeled again, was basically lying on its side and all the windows began to break. That’s when we knew it was time to flee.”

 

[kesh]

probably fell head over keels

 

[Searush]

I think we can excuse our colonial cousins for there own strange version of our language. I would guess that he meant Heeling.

 

[kesh]

more likely a landlubber journalist on a poor line to brazil

 

[Searush]

more likely a landlubber journalist on a poor line to brazil

True enough.

 

[Alfie168]

I'd be interested to know how much sail they were carrying at the time of the accident. When something like this occurs the first question that occurs to me is..were they oversailed ?

On H.M. Bark Endeavour it was said to us that the replica was considerably faster than Cooks original ship. They then went on to say that Cook would have sailed 'his' Endeavour far more conservatively for all sorts of sensible reasons..like lack of rescue if they cocked up, so his sail plan was usually smaller than carried by the replica for any given weather.

There will be a board of enquiry and no doubt we will eventually hear their conclusion, but in the meantime lets all celebrate that no lives were lost (assuming thats correct), and three cheers to the rescuers.

Tim

 

[Bajansailor]

The Pride of Baltimore - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_of_Baltimore
and the Marques - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bark_Marques
both went down in similar circumstances (in 1986 and 1984 respectively), ie where they appeared to have been hit by a squall and they could not get sail off fast enough.

 

[BrianH]

The Pride of Baltimore - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_of_Baltimore
and the Marques - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bark_Marques
both went down in similar circumstances (in 1986 and 1984 respectively), ie where they appeared to have been hit by a squall and they could not get sail off fast enough.

These ships are similar to, or replicas of, old designs but constructed of modern materials. I believe accident reports of such losses raise the point that the original ship, hove down by unexpectedly strong winds on too much sail area, would have the old materials, spars, shrouds, lines, even the sails themselves, carry away before such critical heeling would cause flooding below.

These ships are sunk by the use of stainless steel, nylon and dacron. If these materials must be used then don't copy old designs, draw new ones with adequate stability and deck fittings that won't burst in with water pressure.

 

[Searush]

I understand (from Villiers, Seligman etc) that windjammers would deliberately set old sails when expecting strong winds. Being made of cotton, old sails probably means virtually rotten - if only the stitching.

Ropes were hemp too, so they would be significantly weaker than man-made.

 

[LONG_KEELER]

This from another report .

Interesting bit from the skipper concerning 'rocking violently' :-

"The boat started keeling [sic] a lot," said 16-year-old Lauren Unsworth. "It came back up, keeled again, was basically lying on its side and all the windows began to break. That's when we knew it was time to flee." 64 passengers and crew were forced to jump into the sea, where they clung to life rafts for over 20 hours until ships came to their rescue.

William Curry, captain of the 188 foot long Concordia, said he was expecting rough weather on the day of the accident, but did anticipate anything out of the ordinary. He was shocked when the boat started rocking violently, and knew right away from the motion that the ship and her crew were in great danger. Captain Curry was unable to send out a Mayday call on the radio prior to abandoning ship, because the Concordia's radio equipment was already destroyed by water damaged, but the ship did have an EPIRB (emergency beacon) which was automatically released into the water as the ship began to sink.



Concordia tall shipAs the Concordia went down, the crew jumped overboard, crawling into small life rafts - a difficult feat in the high winds and big seas. Then the long wait began, as they huddled together, wondering if that little emergency beacon was doing its job. They spent nearly a day without any sign of rescue, not knowing if anyone was aware of their dire situation.

 

[Searush]

. . . was basically lying on its side and all the windows began to break . . .

Given that a vessel that size might be around 50' beam, those windows would only be 25-40' below the surface, surely they should be designed to take that level of pressure? Even a plastic & rubber face mask can take that sort of pressure easily.

 

[ean_p]

nothing wrong with the word 'keeling' over to mean that something is starting to or has gone over especially sideways...... quite a common term here abouts.......

 

[Bajansailor]

Pal of mine saw on the last position report for Concordia that she apparently had 8 of her 15 sails set at the time when she was knocked down.

I am thinking that she could hardly be described as 'over canvassed' if she only has 8 out of 15 sails up........ the sails set were reported to be (starting from the aft end) -
The gaff mizzen, gaff mainsail , t'gallant staysail, t'gallant, upper topsail, lower topsail, course and a jib.

The course is the largest and lowest square sail, then the ones going up the mast in ascending order are the lower topsail, upper topsail, t'gallant and royal.
She has three fore 'n aft staysails between the first two masts from the bow, and I think the t'gallant staysail would be the highest one.

From the photos here at http://ca.news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Co...ile-photo-tall-ship-sv-concordia-halifax.html

she can probably also set another two jibs forward, the royal squaresail (highest one), two more staysails between the first 2 masts, and topsails on the main and mizzen sails.
Yep, thats fifteen sails in total!

The lower and upper topsails are traditionally the heavy weather square sails, on a brig like Stavros at least - it might be different on a barquentine (I think that is what she is) like Concordia.

But what they had up is not a lot really for F 4-6 - or even a fair bit more than that.
Although I am a bit surprised they still had the t'gallant unfurled though, if there were any doubts at all about the weather - the royal and then the t'gallant are usually struck as soon as (or before) the wx starts to deteriorate.

So it must have been a unique and severe 'microburst' wind storm that knocked her down , like what probably happened to Marques and Pride of Baltimore.

 

[Wansworth]

Reminds me or the film " WHITE SQUALL" A school ship hit by a white squall that came from nowhere and capsized the ship.The film was based on a true story...Ridley scott music by Sting err......

 

[tmh900]

An interesting case in that it appears to be an exception to the rule that (sailing) boats are only capsised and sunk by (probably breaking) waves - not by wind however strong.